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US & CANADA - The Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Centre says a joint Canada-US imitative aimed at addressing biosecurity and biocontainment issues at points of high concentrations of pigs will help reduce the risk of the transmission of disease in both countries, Bruce Cochrane reports.

US and Canadian swine health officials are joining forces to develop standardized biosecurity and biocontainment recommendations to reduce the potential for the transmission of swine diseases from points of high concentration, such as packing plants, sow buying stations and assembly yards, back to the farm.

Dr Paul Sundberg, the Executive Director of the Swine Health Information Centre, there are a lot of different programs out there and this is an effort to provide standardized recommendations for biocontainment and biosecurity when it comes to interactions with these first points of concentration.

Dr Paul Sundberg-Swine Health Information Centre

There's a lot of trade and a lot of movement between Canada and the US.

It is a North American production system so there are common interests and common goals.

Each country is separate and there are separate interests and separate goals as well but, where we can work together, we can find common ground, we can work together and it will help producers in both countries.

As we go back and forth we need to make sure that we're aware of the issues of transport, we're aware of the issues of biosecurity, biocontainment.

This is a recognition of a common interest between the Canadian pork producers and the Canadian industries and the US pork producers and the US industry.

It's a good example of a spot where we can cooperate, work together with the best ideas on both sides of the border, put it together and benefit everybody so we're really excited about doing this.

We're excited about the collaboration and excited about the project.

Dr Sundberg says hopefully this summer we'll have a product that people will be able to take a look at, comment on and we can go forward and help the industries in both countries.